In general, medium access is of outmost importance for the operation and performance of communication networks.
One of the known Medium Access Control, MAC, protocols is called Listen-Before-Talk, LBT. This is a medium access mechanism in which a communication station senses a radio-based medium during a listening duration and defers transmission if it detects an on-going transmission and transmits more or less immediately if no on-going transmission is detected. In other words, the station verifies the absence of traffic before transmitting on the shared medium.
However, it has been recognized that conventional LBT-based medium access suffers from various problems, e.g. relating to unbalanced and/or unfair medium or channel sharing between different communication stations.
This has limited the use of conventional LBT-based medium access in several communication applications.